Student’s story wins print spot

Matamata Intermediate School student Nicolas Concha’s writing been selected to feature in a book of historical stories with a New Zealand twist.

The Beyond this Story competition run by Tauranga Writers asked intermediate students to enter a piece of hyper-fiction (a narrative inspired by a real person or true event).

Nicolas chose to base his story Dreading Mountain around the 1954 Ruapehu eruption and was one of 50 students chosen to feature in the book.

‘‘It’s pretty cool because I was only 11 and I already got my first story published,’’ he said.

Room 1 students entered the contest last year as part of an assignment and Lane Tims, now at high school, also had his story published.

Nicolas said he did a lot of research on the eruption to make sure his story was accurate.

‘‘We had to find three sources of information to make sure it was true,’’ he said.

Nicolas, now 12, said reading a lot and building a strong vocabulary had helped him in the competition.

‘‘ I like to read mythology and adventure stories, preferably fantasy fiction,’’ he said.

‘‘My favourites

are

probably

the Percy Jackson and series.

‘‘Fantasy really gets your imagination going. The description is really good so you can easily picture it in your mind, which is one of the things that make reading really interesting.’’

Teacher Debbie Currie said the idea was to give the students an authentic purpose for their writing.

‘‘It’s been an opportunity for the kids to showcase their writing and to be really proud of it,’’ she said.

Artemis Fowl